Globalizing the Caribbean

Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class

Jeb Sprague

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781439916551, 9781439916544
• eBook ISBN: 9781439916568
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Histoire économique

The beautiful Caribbean basin is fertile ground for a study of capitalism past and present. Transnational corporations move money and labor around the region, as national regulations are reworked to promote conditions benefiting private capital. Globalizing the Caribbean offers a probing account of the region's experience of economic globalization while considering gendered and racialized social relations and the frequent exploitation of workers.

Jeb Sprague focuses on the social and material nature of this new era in the history of world capitalism. He combines an historical overview of capitalism in the region with theoretical analysis backed by case studies. Sprague elaborates upon the role of class formation and the restructuring of local states. He considers both U.S. hegemony, and how various upsurges from below and crises occur. He examines the globalization of the cruise ship and mining businesses, looks at the growth of migrant labor and reverse flow of remittances, and describes the evolving role of export processing and supranational associations. In doing so, Sprague shows how transnationally oriented elites have come to rule the Caribbean, and how capitalist globalization in the region occurs alongside shifting political, institutional, and organizational dynamics.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Selected Abbreviations
• 1. The Caribbean and Global Capitalism
• 2. The Challenge of Understanding Social Formation in the Global Era
• 3. History of the Modern Caribbean
• 4. The Caribbean Cruise Ship Business and the Emergence of a Transnational Capitalist Class
• 5. Migration, Remittances, and Accumulation in the Globalizing Caribbean
• 6. Globally Competitive Export Processing and Exploitation in the Caribbean
• 7. From International to Transnational Mining: The Industry’s Shifting Political Economy and the Caribbean
• Conclusion: Transnational Processes and the Restructuring of the Caribbean’s Political Economy
• Notes
• References
• Index